A Two Family Christmas

Many friends and readers have asked how Bo and I manage two families during the holidays.

It is not always easy even though we are both from Savannah.

This year, however, we both feel we’ve done pretty well so far. We did our best to discuss our thoughts with both families ahead of time so no one was confused or hurt. This year we did Christmas Eve with Bo’s family and then spent Christmas Day with my family.

Christmas Eve

After enjoying the Christmas Eve service at Isle of Hope Methodist church, we stopped by a neighborhood cocktail party for drinks and socializing with some of the Diamond’s close family friends.

Afterwards, we returned home for a late evening of dinner, lots of wine, and presents!

008 009 010 011013016 017 018 019 Dinner was a group activity as Bo and his dad grilled the meat and Meg finished off the mushroom risotto while Bo’s mom was the master mind behind it all! Everything was delicious and a wonderful way to spend the holiday together.

Christmas Day

After a cup of coffee with the Diamonds, we headed over to my parents’ home 20 miles away. We’re lucky that it’s only a 20 minute trip which allows us to go to and fro between the houses easily. We enjoyed Christmas breakfast before diving into the presents! Mom and I prepared easy stick buns, scrambled eggs, bacon, and fruit for Christmas brunch! (Pictures to come later as they are on my other camera.)

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001 001 007 As you can tell from my face, I wasn’t sure how long the gift giving process would take. We’ve always done gifts one at a time so each person can appreciate it but this year it took almost two hours!

After the present fun and completing our virtual holiday 10k, Bo and I returned home to help with Christmas dinner. This year, the weather didn’t work in our favor, and therefore we weren’t able to fry a turkey. Instead, the boys smoked a turkey in the infamous Green Egg and enjoyed a random array of sides. Each person was able to make one request this year and it resulted in a random but delicious array of flavors and dishes.

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072077 081 These poor boys were in and out of the rain and wind for over two hours smoking the turkey. Meanwhile, inside the rest of us enjoyed a few glasses of delicious wine and a cheese plate.

088 093 094 097 095My favorite part of the meal was enjoying two cookies which only come along once per year, peanut butter blossoms and and Mrs. Battin’s cookies.  I’ll share the Mrs. Battin’s cookie recipe in my next post!

103 104 109 Happy Holidays  from our home to your home! I hope everyone had a cookie filled holiday!

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4 Comments

  1. Mary December 26, 2011 / 7:11 pm

    Your outfit in that picture is soo cute on you! I love it! 🙂

  2. Katy Widrick December 26, 2011 / 10:11 pm

    ooooh, we have those peanut butter blossoms, too! Lucas’ grandmother sends us a big batch of cookies every year.

    I know it’s tough to split families, but I’m jealous. We are so far away that it just doesn’t make sense for us to visit our loved ones, so it’s just the two of us. I miss the fun of busy holidays!

  3. Allison December 28, 2011 / 9:22 pm

    This was our first year splitting up the holiday between my family and my Dear’s, and both of our parents are split so we had 4 different potential venues to visit! Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make it down to SC to visit my Dear’s momma but we did manage to… Spend Christmas Eve with my momma, Christmas Day see my momma in the morning, see his family early afternoon, and see my dad late afternoon- by 4PM we were exhausted!

    Looks like you had a fun, festive, and family-filled holiday!

    • Ashley D December 28, 2011 / 10:43 pm

      Allison: It’s tough but you can only do the best you can! Great job making almost everyone happy!!

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